Document 2RZe9Zb71wDrVgmKkrMO6LDL5

:o]o) df fe (^Cipcfc; T* , l>05 URL 05047 scientific information, `biomedical re search has benefited tremendously from the free exchange of information be tween scientists," he says. But today, with the importance of corporate fund ing and patent rights. King adds that many of his colleagues "are less willing to talk about their research results." Again pointing a finger at Washing ton. King says it is not surprising that universities and faculty members are entering compromising agreements. "If public funds were available, university researchers could be more selective, more cautious about the arrangements into which they enter." Another siege of EPA, pesticides and cancer A review of the fttlicy that federal pes ticide regulators use in assessing cancer risk to people is likely to erupt into a brouhaha when the House Agriculture subcommittee, chaired by Representa tive George E. Brown, Jr. (D., Calif.), meets next month. Staff director Charles Benbrook has already given the subcommittee a report charging that the Environmental Protection Agency's risk assessment for pesticides is too flexible. And EPA Assistant Administra tor John A. Todhunter has responded that the report is "a political diatribe." The argument again pits proponents of a "zero-risk" approach against advo cates of an approach that weighs poten tial risks against the benefits of using a given pesticide, a position generally sup ported by industry. The Musky's concern. Pesticide manu facturers worry that changes in the law could make it more difficult to register their products. Currently, EPA has reg istered more than U200 p--that are made into more than 80,000 sub stances. Pesticide shipments now run nearly $5.4 bOlion/jesr, with the fastest growth in herbicides. Randal Schu macher of the Chemical Manufacturers Assn, says that Benbrook "is definitely from the old school. He certainly holds the traditional government view that cancer risk of any magnitude ought to be eliminated." In the other camp is Jay Feldman, national coordinator of the National Co alition Against Misuse of Pesticides (Washington, D. C.), who contends that any risk of human cancer should be abolished because regulators are deal ing with people's lives. "What was so clear back then--that `zero' exposure is the only acceptable exposure--is not be ing honored by this Administraton," Feldman says. "I think Benbrook is right on target" The Benbrook report says that EPA has decided to accept as tolerable "a level of risk 100 times higher than lev els routinely accepted in the past" Ben brook says the agency now accepts esti mated risk levels of up to 1 cancer per 10,000 population, whereas previous ad ministrations--Democratic and Republi can-used a 1-cancer-per-l-million-population standard. MuflMunt evidence. The report fur ther charges that EPA conducts studies of the oncogenicity, or potential for causing tumors, of pesticides in a way that can exclude information important in determining risk. The agency, Ben brook says, routinely conducts risk as sessments on pesticides that cause ma lignant tumors, but does not extend the same attention to benign tumor prob lems. "The agency assumes that, in cer tain instances, a statistically significant increase in benign tumors is insuffi cient evidence' of a chemical's potential to cancer in man." More troubling, the congressman says, is that agency officials are willing to tilt their regulatory deliberations. EPA, he complains, is trying "to incor porate the proposition that negative ex perimental evidence can cancel the sig nificance of certified, positive evidence of oncogenicity." The Benbrook report also criticizes EPA for allegedly misusing the classifi cation system for oncogenicity, spon sored by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (1ABC) in Fiimce. Agency officials improperly interpret the IARC program's "limited evidence" category as meaning "limited or no risk to man," the document says. Todhunter seoffs at such allegations. In his interpretation of cancer policy, he says that he is merely trying to be a TheCW weekly Index of chemical prices 375 300 29t 283 275 Dec. 360 325 1982------------------- 300 1683 278 260 i F 11 MA M J pragmatic scientist when a test indi cates an increase in tumors. "The re port," says Todhunter, "seems to con clude that one positive test showing a statistically significant increase in tu mors should drive the entire risk assess ment, no matter how much additional information is available or how well the test is conducted. We think," he adds, "that when the agency has other con tradictory information, the weight of evidence may not support taking regu latory action." The toxics chief notes that the judg- Todhwrtar is strivwig to be pragmatic. ment of EPA toxicologists plays a large role in sorting out evidence and making a reasonable risk judgment EPA, he says, clearly adheres to the spirit of the agency's cancer policy. "It was meant to be a program capable of accommo dating an ever-advancing state of the art" EPA, Todhunter adds, believes that tools for weighing regulatory evi dence have become more accurate at very low levels of detection, and "deci sions, in turn, have involved increasing ly complicated risk assessments." Latest Latest week Jan. Year ago 282.7 282.7 282.6 301.9 1 1 Llll J A S ON D n Chanul WMk/Janary 12. 1963